Ho Hum, It’s The Google Nexus One

In the first major anti-climax of 2010, Google today launched the Nexus One, the first true Google phone to hit the market.

To be fair to Google, the Nexus One isn’t a bad phone as such, but likewise the hype surrounding the phone was way over done for what it actually is.

What it isn’t is an iPhone killer. While the Android led offerings from Google and others continue to improve, every hyped release always seems to lack a killer feature. The Nexus One doesn’t even come close to having killer features, although by its specs it will probably be the quickest phone on the market. But will people buy a phone just because it’s slightly faster?

Various reports are claiming that the Nexus One isn’t making any money for Google, and it’s all about getting Google products on as many handsets as possible. That may be true, but there’s an issue here: the phone isn’t cheap (see Nexus One vs Droid vs iPhone.) $529 for a phone with these specs isn’t bad, but it’s hardly ground breaking either when you can get an iPhone for another $70, an iPhone that also comes with 4x the memory. What happened to the idea of a Google subsidized phone, a phone where the ads help offset the cost of the phone? Why does the Nexus One still cost $179 up front on a plan when you can get other phones for $0 up front on a plan? Where’s the innovation in under-cutting other phones on price by a small amount?

As much as I find the Nexus One personally appealing, this is a ho hum announcement from Google for a product that could easily become Google’s first major failure of the new decade. They say that Google is becoming more Microsoft like, and the Nexus One proves it.

In case you missed it, the full Google Nexus One specs as follow:

Size & Weight:

Height: 119mm
Width: 59.8mm
Depth: 11.5mm
Weight: 130 grams with battery, 100g without battery

Display:
3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen
800 x 480 pixels
100,000:1 typical contrast ratio
1ms typical response rate

Camera and Flash:
5 megapixels
Autofocus from 6cm to infinity
2X digital zoom
LED flash
User can include location of photos from phone’s AGPS receiver
Video captured at 720×480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

Cellular and Wireless:
UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
HSDPA 7.2Mbps
HSUPA 2Mbps
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
A2DP stereo Bluetooth

Power and Battery:
Removable 1400 mAH battery
Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger
Talk time:
Up to 10 hours on 2G
Up to 7 hours on 3G
Standby time:
Up to 290 hours on 2G Up to 250 hours on 3G
Internet use:
Up to 5 hours on 3G
Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi
Video playback:
Up to 7 hours
Audio playback:
Up to 20 hours

Processor:
Qualcomm QSD 8250 running at 1 GHz

Operating System:
Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1

Capacity:
512MB Flash
512MB RAM
4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)

Location:
Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver
Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning
Digital compass, Accelerometer

Additional Features:
Haptic feedback
Teflon™ coated back
Second microphone for active noise cancellation
SIM card slot
Micro SD slot
Proximity sensor
Light sensor

Pre-Loaded Applications:
Maps, Gallery, YouTube, Market, Phone, Gmail, Browser, Voice, integrated Google suite, Navigation, and others. No full official list available at this time.

File Formats Supported:
Image: JPEG (encode and decode), GIF, PNG, BMP
Video: H.263 (encode and decode) MPEG-4 SP (encode and decode) H.264 AVC (decode)
Audio encoders: AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz
Audio decoders: AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1 (AAC+), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+) Mono/Stereo standard bit rates up to 160 kbps and sampling rates from 8 to 48kHz, AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz, AMR-WB 9 rates from 6.60 kbit/s to 23.85 kbit/s sampled @ 16kHz., MP3 Mono/Stereo 8-320Kbps constant (CBR) or variable bit-rate (VBR), MIDI SMF (Type 0 and 1), DLS Version 1 and 2, XMF/Mobile XMF, RTTTL/RTX, OTA, iMelody, Ogg Vorbis, WAVE (8-bit and 16-bit PCM)

Languages Supported:
Keyboard: English (U.S), French (France), German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil)
Display: English (U.S), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Korean, Japanese, Russian,